Outsider Scientists: Routes to Innovation in Biology - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 022607840X ISBN 13: 9780226078403

Verlag: University of Chicago Press, 2013

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Críticas:

"Offers a very instructive account of the work and ideas of several important figures of the history of the life sciences from the second half of the 19th century to the present. . . . It shows that individual people, at least on some occasions, are able to perform work and develop ideas that are of great significance. Such a demonstration is invaluable to transmit and to help reinforce the taste for research."--Laurent Loison, University of Strasbourg "Centaurus " "Biology is a constantly shifting chimera--so we learn from this remarkable set of essays curated by Oren Harman and Michael R. Dietrich. But unlike the Greek mythic creature (lion, goat, snake), biology, these authors show, has been even more polymorphic, and in ever new ways: biology is put together from linguistic, philosophical, and literary practices, and involves skills borrowed from physics, computation, and chemistry, among other fields. Anyone interested in biology should read this book--and so should all of us who want to understand outside thinking as a crucial driver of innovation." --Peter Galison, Harvard University Biology is a constantly shifting chimera so we learn from this remarkable set of essays curated by Oren Harman and Michael R. Dietrich.But unlike the Greek mythic creature (lion, goat, snake), biology, these authors show, has been even more polymorphic, and in ever new ways: biology is put together from linguistic, philosophical, and literary practices, and involves skills borrowed from physics, computation, and chemistry, among other fields. Anyone interested in biology should read this book and so should all of us who want to understand outside thinking as a crucial driver of innovation. --Peter Galison, Harvard University"

Reseña del editor:

Outsider Scientists describes the transformative role played by “outsiders” in the growth of the modern life sciences. Biology, which occupies a special place between the exact and human sciences, has historically attracted many thinkers whose primary training was in other fields: mathematics, physics, chemistry, linguistics, philosophy, history, anthropology, engineering, and even literature. These outsiders brought with them ideas and tools that were foreign to biology, but which, when applied to biological problems, helped to bring about dramatic, and often surprising, breakthroughs.

This volume brings together eighteen thought-provoking biographical essays of some of the most remarkable outsiders of the modern era, each written by an authority in the respective field. From Noam Chomsky using linguistics to answer questions about brain architecture, to Erwin Schrödinger contemplating DNA as a physicist would, to Drew Endy tinkering with Biobricks to create new forms of synthetic life, the outsiders featured here make clear just how much there is to gain from disrespecting conventional boundaries. Innovation, it turns out, often relies on importing new ideas from other fields. Without its outsiders, modern biology would hardly be recognizable.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: University of Chicago Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• ISBN 10: 022607840X
• ISBN 13: 9780226078403
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 386
• Herausgeber: Harman Oren, Dietrich Michael R.